Birthday un-cake

I feel very blessed that I will be celebrating my birthday today with a family brunch. My family has been very kind with respect to my new eating restrictions and always ensure that there is some vegetarian, dairy and gluten free food available for me to eat at all family functions.

It’s hard to imagine a birthday party without a birthday cake – blowing out the candles and singing happy birthday are birthday traditions with which even my four year old son strongly identifies.

I toyed with the idea of not having a cake at my birthday, just to make a statement against all the unhealthy birthday cakes that are generally served at birthday parties. Yes, I’m talking about cakes filled with white sugar, white flour and butter, or perhaps margarine or hydrogenated fats! I really don’t mean to be a party pooper – but NO ONE needs to eat these things, even in moderation.

I wanted to put a candle in a bowl of fruit and skip the cake at my birthday brunch. This was causing a lot of distress to both my mom and son – they couldn’t fathom a party without a cake!

So I decided to compromise, and make myself a vegan gluten free cake full of healthy and tasty ingredients. I found this recipe for a Raw Cashew Cheesecake on the Vegetarian Times website. I followed it exactly, except for swapping out the lime juice with lemon juice, since we were out of limes. This cake contains no dairy or eggs or sugar, but boy is it delicious!

Here is the final result:

Raw cashew cheesecake

I had a taste of both the crust and the filling as I was making them, and they were both delish. I think it will be a hit tomorrow. I plan on topping it with some fresh fruit, as suggested in the recipe.